What you see isn’t what you get: NBA buy low/sell high candidates

Two weeks into the season, as always, there have been some fantasy basketball break out and disappointing performances. Some will continue, but some just don’t make sense. Here’s who you should look to grab or get rid of: buy low/sell high.

Will Michael Carter-Williams keep up his hot start? He had the most steals (9) by anybody in their first game. Photo credit: Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images

The 11th overall pick has looked like he should have gone #1 based on his start to the season. But don’t expect the 21st ranked player in Yahoo! leagues to keep up that pace all season. He’s averaging 2.1 three pointers per contest, but the 3 ball isn’t really his game. After the first week of the season, he had made as many three pointers (nine) as he did in his final seven weeks at Syracuse. You also have to factor in that the over/under line for 76ers wins this year was set at 16.5, and they already have 4. This team isn’t going to keep playing this well. Also, if Carter-Williams keeps playing 37.1 minutes a night, he’s going to hit the rookie wall sooner rather than later.

-Kyle Korver, SG, ATL:I don’t think this one needs much fleshing out. Korver is ranked 8th in Yahoo! leagues after an ADP of 115. If you think his 58.2 FG% is unsustainable, consider that his 3PT% is a couple clicks higher at 58.6. Don’t count on him to average anywhere near his current 1.7 STL per game since he hasn’t averaged more than 0.9 in almost a decade. Try shipping him off to a team in need of help beyond the arc.

-Hawes is currently averaging more 3’s per game than LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Ray Allen and Dirk Nowitzki, just to name a few. He’s also shooting almost 9% higher from the floor than his career average. Get this man off your team while the going is still good.

-Zaza Pachulia, C, MIL:
-Pachulia has played well so far this year, with or without Larry Sanders, or as Zach Lowe would say, LARRY SANDERS! His last game against Dallas was disappointing, but in the big Georgian’s first game without Sanders he played 40 minutes putting up 14 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, going 10-10 from the line. The issue is the minutes. Sanders isn’t going to be charged for his role in a bar fight and should be back in the Bucks lineup soon. Without Sanders, Pachulia averages 39 mins/game. With Sanders, Pachulia is averaging just 25.

Buy low:

-Kenneth Faried, PF, DEN:-Faried’s numbers are down to start the year but there’s no reason to think they should stay that way. He’s coming off a preseason injury and might just be taking some time to get back up to speed. Something that should help his numbers is the absence of JaVale McGee, who’s out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his leg. Without McGee and Danilo Gallinari, Faried and Ty Lawson are the only real options to score on the Nuggets.

Patrick Beverley should have plenty of opportunity starting at PG for the fast paced Rockets. Photo credit: Bob Levey/Getty Images

-Patrick Beverley, PG, HOU:-Beverley is healthy and back to starting over Jeremy Lin at point guard in Houston. His first two games back weren’t great, but he had a nice game against the Clippers on Saturday with 14 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks. He’s only owned in 38% of Yahoo! leagues and with options to dish the ball to like Dwight Howard, James Harden and Chandler Parsons, he figures to be a good pickup.-Larry Sanders, PF/C, MIL:-Sanders is out after he hurt his thumb during a bar fight but it doesn’t sound like he’ll miss much time. But even before the injury, he was struggling to start the season averaging 2.7 points on 25% shooting and 3.7 rebounds per game. A reason could be his minutes, which are down to 17 per night from 27 last year, due to the Bucks unwillingness to play him during crunch time (despite signing him to a 4 year, $44 million contract in the offseason). Expect him to be closer to his near double-double averages and 2+ blocks per game from last year once he’s back.-Bradley Beal, SG, WAS:-You’re probably not going to find him on the waiver wire (owned in 90% of Yahoo! leagues) but if you can get him relatively cheap in a trade, jump on it. Beal had a so-so start to the season, but has gone off for 29 and 34 points his last two games. What’s even more encouraging is that they were both on 55+% shooting. If you need 3’s, Beal could also be your guy. He’s launching up 7 per game and knocking down 3.3 of them. This could be a big breakout year for Beal and you don’t want to miss out on it if you can get him for a good price.

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[…] sure to move the needle on trade offers. As a fantasy owner myself, I know it does you no good to read about Zaza Pachulia being a great sell-high candidate. He’s not going to bring you anything meaningful in […]